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Life With 2013 Tesla Model S: Getting Supercharged In Winter Page 2

 
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Tesla Road Trip from MD to CT, Feb 2013 - Tesla Model S cars at Delaware SuperCharger location

Tesla Road Trip from MD to CT, Feb 2013 - Tesla Model S cars at Delaware SuperCharger location

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There were no instructions on the charger, just a phone number to call in case of problems. The charging plug was the same as the one I use at home.

Click the button on the plug, the charge door pops open. Plug in, and the glowing ring around the charge port turns blue, then green, and begins to pulse rapidly. Just like at home. Nothing to it.


Tesla brags that Superchargers are located at places "you'll actually want to stop." Not the Milford service area, a monument to low-rent fast food: McDonald's, Subway, Dunkin' Donuts. I used the bathroom (clean), grabbed a smoothie and a Danish, and was out of there in 26 minutes.

During that time, the car picked up 62 miles of range, bringing the Guess-O-Meter up to 178 miles, more than double the mileage home.

This fell far short of Tesla's claimed 150 miles in 30 minutes.

There are, however, two reasons.

First, I was more than half full when I plugged in. The charging rate is very fast for an empty battery, but it slows down as the battery fills up.

Second, I have the mid-size 60-kWh battery, not the big 85-kWh model. With less capacity, my charge rate presumably falls off more quickly. (A Tesla rep on the owners' hotline could shed no light on 60-kWh vs. 85-kWh charging rates for me.)

With my brain perhaps dulled by a fast-food sugar-and-fat buzz, I had some trouble getting the plug out. With no instructions, I did what I do at home to unplug: squeeze the button on the plug and pull.

But it wouldn't come out. With  rising panic, I fiddled for 5 or 10 seconds, randomly pushing the button and tugging the cord. Nothing.

And then, thank God, it finally popped out, for no apparent reason.

(A Tesla hotline rep later confirmed that it takes longer for the Supercharger to shut down and release the charge cord. Might I suggest it would be nice to let Model S owners know that ahead of time?)

Fat with energy, I drove home at my normal 70 to 75 mph, and didn't stint on the acceleration. (Nothing crazy, though.) I arrived home with 76 miles remaining, for a net "usage" of 102 miles on the meter to cover the 88 miles home.

After trying out a Supercharger, I can see its potential.  But Tesla needs to put the charging stations closer together.

The two Superchargers connecting Washington D.C., and Boston are about 200 miles apart. John Broder notwithstanding, that's probably okay for an 85-kWh car under most conditions. But it provides little margin for cold weather, fast driving, or Murphy's Law.

2012 Tesla Model S

2012 Tesla Model S

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And for 60-kWh cars like mine, it just doesn't work at all.

Okay, if I drive 55 mph and don't use the heat or air conditioning, I might make it by the skin of my teeth. Maybe. If nothing unexpected happens.

But I'm guessing  this kind of razor's-edge driving is not what Tesla has in mind. It's certainly not what I have in mind; this weekend I'll be driving to Baltimore in my trusty Chevy Volt because I'm not willing to risk the 198-mile drive in the Model S from my house to the Supercharger in Newark, Delaware.

According to  Broder, Elon Musk conceded that the Superchargers need to be 140 miles apart, not 200.

Speaking for all Supercharger-equipped 60-kWh Model S owners, I concur most heartily.

David Noland is a Tesla Model S owner and freelance writer who lives 60 miles north of New York City.

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Comments (50)

  1. fb_606631802 avatar Edward Arthur Posted: 3/4/2013 8:18am PST

    There's no need for a double u-turn, the northbound and southbound sides have superchargers.
     
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  2. fb_100004205076146 avatar Carolyn Harding Posted: 3/4/2013 8:43am PST

    what I don't get, is why Tesla's charging stations are only for Tesla! Come on! Let's Move forward against Climate Change. Help all folks trying to go electra Tesla! cinubluegreen.blogspot.com - I admire what you are doing, but I don't admire the exclusive charging stations.
     
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  3. fb_615350351 avatar Nick Willan Posted: 3/4/2013 9:41am PST

    The batteries in other cars would get fried if they hooked up to the super chargers. The voltage or amperage would be simply too much and you'd kill your Leaf or Volt's battery

    Down the road, if a similar car was built, I could see Tesla opening up the chargers to others (at a cost, I'm sure)
     
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  4. fb_1470388190 avatar David Laur Posted: 3/4/2013 11:06am PST

    batteries would not get "fried" because the supercharger cannot give more than the car asks for.

    why should Tesla foot the bill for every EV out there?
     
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  5. fb_1559222512 avatar Xiaolong Li Posted: 3/4/2013 2:39pm PST

    @Nick,

    Also, it wouldn't "fry" anything since the super chargers don't even the same way. How fast a battery can charge usually correlates to how much current the charger can pump out.

    If Volt and Leaf's battery can crank out over 100KW, then they can handle the power that Superchargers produces... Also, Volt doesn't come with DC chargers..
     
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  6. fb_100000086273049 avatar František Kubiš Posted: 3/4/2013 5:07pm PST

    Fighting climate change is one think, but keeping company afloat, giving its product some special advantage against competition is totally different story! Why should Tesla build superchargers for Nissan or GM? :) I am sure they will licence their technology for other OEMs later, but only for fat license fee ;-)
     
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  7. fb_787701102 avatar Martin Winlow Posted: 4/6/2013 1:13am PDT

    Well, I agree that T should not have to pay for its competitors customers to use their privately funded chargers but, on the other hand, if the G-ment is serious about EVs it really is time that they 'pony-up',as I believe you Americans say, and pay to install a decent fast-charging infrastructure and not leave it to private business. As I understand it, the National Interstate Highway System consists of about 50k miles of highway. The cost of installing 4-car fast chargers (using Tesla's system and costs*) at 50 mile intervals along it would be a mere $200 million.

    A drop in the ocean as far as the US economy is concerned.

    MW

    *http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-09-24/tesla-building-250-000-chargers-for-model-s-drivers-in-high
     
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  8. rxmz20 avatar rxmz20 Posted: 3/4/2013 8:54am PST

    Just curious because I didn't see it mentioned: Did you pay the extra $2000 for the SuperCharging option for the 60-kWh model?
     
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  9. rxmz20 avatar rxmz20 Posted: 3/4/2013 11:05am PST

    I see it noted in the story now.
     
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  10. YuriG avatar Yuri G Posted: 3/4/2013 9:02am PST

    Why didn't you look up the Supercharger location on Google Maps on your 17-inch touchscreen? It points directly to the charging spots, north and southbound.
     
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  11. cjpitt avatar Joe Pitt Posted: 3/4/2013 9:09am PST

    Did you get the dual-charger configuration with your car? That could also affect recharge rate.
     
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  12. fb_681824244 avatar Eric Nadler Posted: 3/4/2013 10:56am PST

    Dual Chargers have nothing to do with the superchargers. Dual chargers allow you to take advantage of other charging stations that are greater than 40amps. The superchargers actually bypass the internal chargers and provide direct DC to DC charging.
     
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  13. Chris O avatar Chris O Posted: 3/4/2013 10:15am PST

    This is the approach to Tesla's Milford superchargers:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3fO_OHpyYw

    It's not hard, the navigation system should make sure that even the dimmest driver doesn't miss the mark.

    The appearance of the superchargers is well known by the fans since Brodergate and one might have known there is no huge obelisk present at this site.

    Maybe the point of this exercise was to give the Broder story more credibility but I'm not buying it.
     
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  14. rd22 avatar R D Posted: 3/4/2013 10:36am PST

    If you wanted to do 200+ mile trips routinely in this car, you should have purchased the 85kWh battery, not the 60kWh. That was your fault, not Tesla's. The EPA rated range for the 60kWh battery is around 220 miles. So... why are you complaining about it now? It would have cost you another $8k (since you paid $2k for supercharging in the 60kWh) for you to upgrade to the 85kWh battery if you had wanted to do the long distance trips more easily. Stop whining.
     
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  15. fb_800937730 avatar Yuval Brandstetter Posted: 3/4/2013 12:06pm PST

    Ridiculous. If Tesla wants to serve its customers well it should install a charge station every thirty miles, or better a swap-station that charges the battery fully allowing for a five minute switch and go
     
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  16. MorinMoss avatar Morin Moss Posted: 3/5/2013 8:28am PST

    At this point every 30 miles is probably excessively close but 200 miles apart is crazy and even 140 miles is not close enough.
     
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  17. fb_100000502624690 avatar John McVicker Posted: 3/5/2013 6:56pm PST

    When the number of potential users increase, I'm sure that more stations could be laid out. Also, I really think Nissan should sponsor DC fast charging stations at rest stops too. They need to get the same end user enticements out there to allow for longer distance commuting with their leaf model.
     
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  18. MorinMoss avatar Morin Moss Posted: 3/6/2013 7:35am PST

    Perhaps we could have EV companies collaborate on a build-out of level 3 DC fast chargers with more powerful cars like the Model S using 2 chargers at the same time.
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  19. fb_742416538 avatar James Cooke Posted: 3/8/2013 5:41pm PST

    Actually they should be as common as petrol stations (and I'm sure they will be one day). Then the range of your car becomes mere convenience, rather than necessity.
     
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  20. fb_1470388190 avatar David Laur Posted: 3/4/2013 11:09am PST

    never saw a rest area that did not have a turnaround...

    I think its great they have food there and although its apparently not up to everyone's standards (ahem...) its better than a few we have here. One QC is at a gas station with nothing but "7-11" type food and a taco truck if you are lucky enough to be there during their business hours.

    sounds like Tesla needs to put a "stop charge" button on their unit. the unplug delay is a bit "weird" and I see people possibly breaking stuff down the line
     
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  21. fb_1103970870 avatar Charlie Eller Posted: 3/4/2013 11:25am PST

    Can someone please tell me how the claim that it will have more than 100 Supercharger stations by 2015, enabling the Model S to make long cross-country trips just like a gasoline car is going to work. If the car has a range of 220 miles and then has to spend 30 minutes or so charging before moving on, that will NOT be just like a gasoline car, or hybrid, or diesel.
     
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  22. rxmz20 avatar rxmz20 Posted: 3/4/2013 11:38am PST

    The thinking is, if you're not pushing it, you might take a stretch/food/bathroom break every four hours or so even in a gas powered car. Take those breaks when you're at a SuperCharger station, and add in the fact that hopefully you're starting each day of the trip with a full charge, and the overall trip time will not be very different in the Tesla. (As a bonus, you'd pay nothing for your fuel along the way.)
     
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  23. fb_528677124 avatar Thomas Fisher Posted: 3/4/2013 12:07pm PST

    When's the last time you actually drove across the country? Personally, I've driven ~halfway across three times in my life and the Model S would have added a half day at most to what was already a multi-day trip (assuming a full buildout of SuperChargers).

    A more typical long distance drive is less than 600 miles, and at most a Model S will take a couple of hours longer doing that trip because it needs to stop twice to recharge.

    Considering that for the rest of the year a Model S driver doesn't need to visit gas stations at all, while the ICE driver needs to go once every week or two, the Model S saves time overall, while being at least acceptable on a road trip of any length.
     
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  24. Norbert N avatar Norbert N Posted: 3/4/2013 12:46pm PST

    Also, with each supercharge, you save about $40 gasoline (from going out of your wallet into the oil industry).
     
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  25. fb_1559222512 avatar Xiaolong Li Posted: 3/4/2013 3:06pm PST

    "while the ICE driver needs to go once every week or two"

    I am NOT sure that is true with today's MPG. Typical driver drives less than 40 miles per day. That is about 200 miles per week. Typical ICE cars have a range of 350 miles to 400 miles. Hybrids can easily get 500 miles range and diesels are known to go farther... Prius is known to go for 600 miles between fillups... So, it is NOT all that extreme.

    Sure Tesla is more comparable to a luxury sedan instead of Prius, but the point is that BEV's biggest "threat" is actually high MPG hybrid...
     
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  26. Norbert N avatar Norbert N Posted: 3/4/2013 4:07pm PST

    If 40 miles/day is an average per day, then you'd have to use 7 days per week, not 5, and that gives 280 miles/week (with up to 50% of drivers using more than that), or 560 miles over two weeks. So that wouldn't be all that wrong.
     
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  27. fb_1559222512 avatar Xiaolong Li Posted: 3/4/2013 6:00pm PST

    It is actually 70% of the driver drive less than 40 miles per day...
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  28. fb_1559222512 avatar Xiaolong Li Posted: 3/4/2013 11:38am PST

    As good as the Tesla S is, it is still limiting at this point without the proper infrastructure to support it. We will see how much that changes by 2015 when the next generation Blue Star sedan comes out...

    I hope it all improves by then. In the mean time, an EV with a range extender still makes the most sense at this point.
     
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  29. fb_528677124 avatar Thomas Fisher Posted: 3/4/2013 11:59am PST

    According to the latest from Tesla, Blue Star is more likely to become available in 2017.
     
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  30. fb_1559222512 avatar Xiaolong Li Posted: 3/4/2013 3:04pm PST

    Well, Let us hope so. It is just in time for me to finish paying for my Volt with the 0% 72 month finance.
     
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  31. fb_800937730 avatar Yuval Brandstetter Posted: 3/4/2013 11:46am PST

    Reading the travails of tesla owners, who paid top-dollar thrice the price of a regular gas guzzler, I can appreciate the service I get with better place. swap stations are 20-30 miles apart, 42 stations to serve a country that fits in the LA basin, charge points galore, each precisely controlled from BP HQ, Elon Musk has this across the road from his office, and doent use it. Riduculous. Did i say my EV cost a third of a Tesla?
     
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  32. fb_528677124 avatar Thomas Fisher Posted: 3/4/2013 11:58am PST

    It costs a third of the price of a Tesla? Too bad it's only worth maybe a tenth the cost of a Tesla.
     
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  33. john_v avatar John Voelcker Posted: 3/4/2013 12:15pm PST

    @Yuval: Ah, but if I understand the Better Place service correctly, you don't own your batteries. Tesla owners do.

    There are pros & cons to that, but if their company goes under, at least they'll have driveable cars. I'd be curious to know: What provisions are there for Fluence ZE owners in Israel if Better Place goes out of business?
     
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  34. fb_100000502624690 avatar John McVicker Posted: 3/5/2013 7:02pm PST

    Israel is the size of New Jersey. Many of us here in the USA drive farther distances than that daily. Just read a news story of 600,000 commuters drive 90 minutes each way and over 50 miles each way. And I think that is California alone. In New Jersey, some commutes are 30 miles to a train station and another hour or more on a train to NYC. Some people drive the full distance. My boss used to drive 72 miles each way for 15 years. Better place couldn't handle these distances.
     
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  35. Chris O avatar Chris O Posted: 3/4/2013 1:29pm PST

    @ Yuval: If you want to astroturf the Better Place battery swapping concept here is some tips:

    -don't bash Tesla, it's the best way to make what you are standing for even more unpopular than it already is with EV fans
    -don't spout nonsense, it's great that your little Renault minus the battery costs only a third of the Model S, but that's for the same reason obviously that a Corolla would only cost a third of an A7 or an XF.
    -realise that people will spot the flaws in your logic. Even if BP had 42 stations operational (I think it's more like half that): for the cost of those stations Tesla could probably realise 400+ fast chargers. It's just a cheaper way to make a dense grid and Tesla is working on it.
     
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  36. MorinMoss avatar Morin Moss Posted: 3/5/2013 8:40am PST

    A battery switch station is essentially a robotic energy -storage facility. It can earn money from utilities for peak-shaving whether or not cars are making use of it.
     
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  37. fb_100000502624690 avatar John McVicker Posted: 3/5/2013 7:04pm PST

    It could, in theory, but does it?
     
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    38. There are more comments in this thread

  38. fb_528677124 avatar Thomas Fisher Posted: 3/4/2013 12:16pm PST

    Why is the author focusing on "Rated" miles instead of "Projected" miles? Rated miles isn't even a guess-o-meter, its basically just the EPA range multiplied by the battery charge percentage.

    It's only accurate to the extent that your driving approximates the average power consumption used during the EPA test. In fairness, the EPA test is a decent generalization which means it's not a terrible number if you drive conservatively.

    But the "Projected" range is an actual guess by the car as to your range based on current conditions. It's the only actual guess-o-meter on the car, so it would be nice if you referred to that instead of rated range.
     
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  39. Norbert N avatar Norbert N Posted: 3/4/2013 12:25pm PST

    > "accuracy of the "rated range" readout--also called the Guess-O-Meter"

    The article might leave some readers thinking that the "rated range" readout would be meant to be the expected range under given driving conditions. That is not the case. It shows range under (fixed) official EPA test conditions. So to speak, when the car is turned on in the garage, and doesn't know yet how fast you will drive, or about the future temperature outside.

    I also haven't heard the term "Guess-O-Meter"... except for the Leaf, which is different. In the Model S, that's more the "projected range", which can be displayed on the center console, for example based on the actual consumption during the last 30 miles of actual driving.
     
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  40. fb_1559222512 avatar Xiaolong Li Posted: 3/4/2013 3:02pm PST

    Well, Guess-O-Meter is the same way on a gasoline car too. The range on the ICE car is an estimate as well. The only accurate part is how many gallon it has used and the tank size. But the same is true for BEVs. You know how many KWh you have used and what size of your battery is with a full charge...
     
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  41. Norbert N avatar Norbert N Posted: 3/4/2013 12:43pm PST

    BTW, Tesla has already said that they add more Superchargers on the East coast, also to reduce the distance currently between the existing ones. (Those were just the first step.)
     
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  42. joehuber avatar Joe Huber Posted: 3/4/2013 2:11pm PST

    "This fell far short of Tesla's claimed 150 miles in 30 minutes."

    Tesla does not make that claim for the 60 kwh cars. They say that starting with a near empty battery a Supercharger will fill the battery about half way in 30 minutes. For the 85 kwh cars that works out to about 150 miles which you frequently see mentioned. However it obviously works out to something less for the 60 kwh cars.
     
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  43. fb_100001716371618 avatar John Sun Posted: 3/4/2013 3:03pm PST

    I wish there was a button to vote down articles for wasted time...
     
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  44. fb_599454693 avatar Jan Durzynski Posted: 3/4/2013 4:09pm PST

    You could still go from DC to Boston in the Tesla just fine if you came down to mingle with the commoners at the L2 for an hour or two... Heck, we're still stuck here on 3.3 kWh charging, so you really have nothing to complain. So many chargers all over the place.
     
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  45. fb_5819255 avatar Richard Dort Posted: 3/4/2013 4:34pm PST

    I don't get the comments like this, "After trying out a Supercharger, I can see its potential. But Tesla needs to put the charging stations closer together."

    Like Tesla or anyother company hires dimwits that can't do basic math? Of course Tesla knows they need superchargers closer together. They've only had time and money enough 2 whole SCs on the whole East coast these reports have found a fundemental flaw? It doesn't work for many people right now, but let them get a few more up. Everyone seems so impatient. As far as finding the stations I watched 6 Tesla owners find those staions at night in a snow storm I believe. Yes, people clearly need to be on the look the first time, but really?
     
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  46. fb_100000502624690 avatar John McVicker Posted: 3/5/2013 7:08pm PST

    Supercharges are an outlier condition. Not all tesla users would use them daily or even weekly. Most would do as usual, charge at home, drive their radius. I guess someone in Baltimore who gets a job in Wilmington, DE and wants to refill on the way home would make the Newark, DE supercharger a common stopping point. But adding an hour to your round trip seems a little much to your day. Commute distances like that are crazy stuff.
     
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  47. fb_100000173995706 avatar Mark Webb-Johnson Posted: 3/4/2013 5:10pm PST

    I find your comment "I parked the car and backtracked on foot" interesting - especially considering you still had 116 miles of range remaining.

    Compare that with Mr Broder's approach of supposedly driving round and round in circles looking for the supercharger - when he had 0 miles of range remaining and the car was indicating it was on reserve power.

    In either situation, I would have done what you did. Park and go to ask someone (or find it myself).
     
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  48. armchair-car-enthusiast avatar Thomas Yip Posted: 3/4/2013 8:28pm PST

    Thank you for a balanced, real-world review. I find that most people are polarized in this controversy: those who bash Tesla or Mr. Broder without fact-checking.

    Mr. Broder's review did the Model S a disservice because he didn't:
    1. read the manual
    2. use common sense and fully recharge
    3. use his correspondences with Tesla tech support to defend his circumstances

    However, Mr. Musk was also to blame for his:
    1. hasty accusations (the parking lot assumption)
    2. evasive responses (never mentioned the conversations between Mr. Broder and Tesla tech support)
    3. cherry-picking (concluding NYT admitted fault; it did not)

    I applaud Tesla as a pioneer, but Mr. Musk didn't handle this fiasco well.


    armchair-car-enthusiast.blogspot.com
     
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  49. Kohler Controller avatar Marc Kohler Posted: 3/13/2013 7:12am PDT

    David, great report. When you used the supercharger, did it charge at 90kW or at a reduced 60kW to keep a 1C (1 hour rate) charge rate for your 60kWh pack? Any idea why the 40kWh Model S will not be fast charge capable?
     
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